The literal meaning of osteoporosis is ‘porous’. Osteoporosis is a preventable, treatable condition of weak, hollow, brittle bones that break easily.
Osteoporosis is one of the most common disorders to be found in elderly populations.
Bone is a specialized form of mineralized connective tissue that is build by various types of metabolically active cells during embryonic and postnatal development.
Bones are living tissues. Throughout life, old bone is removed and replaced by new bone.
If old bone is removed at a rate that is too fast, or if the rate of new bone replacement occurs too slowly, then gradually bones become porous and fragile. For example, 40% of the bone's density can be lost during advanced osteoporosis.
In general, it is a systematic disease where rigidity and mechanical stability of bone declines, until bone loses the ability to withstand function loading or weak traumata.
A lifelong adequate intake of calcium and vitamin D, as well as phosphorus, zinc, vitamins K and C, copper and manganese, helps bone health by increasing the amount of bone formed during youth and early adulthood.
Adequate diet and hormone levels also slow down the rate of overall bone loss that occurs later in life.
When recommended amounts of calcium are consumed during the bone-building years, maximum bone mass "reserves" with a consequent reduction in osteoporosis, and 50% fewer hip fractures later in life.
Osteoporosis is second only to cardiovascular disease as a leading health care problem worldwide. The WHO estimates that one on three women and one in eight men over age 50 risk having osteoporotic fracture during their lifetime.
In its advanced stages, a painful condition affecting approximately 30 million Americans, causing fractures, typically of the hip, wrist, and spine.
The definition of osteoporosis
